Not sure why that would happen when there are already direct Bath to Cheltenham Spa services tbh.
Yes these are overcrowded, but surely the answer there is to solve the overcrowding on those services?

I have to agree with bignosemac's comments. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) can't even deal with their current services at the moment. Surely they should sort that out first?
Then maybe start looking at improvements to current services (higher frequencies, new stations on existing services) etc.

Bad luck? Or a true reflection of how poor the provision is for such things when travelling?

Whilst no where near the same, I travel by rail a fair bit (I commute by train for work, I travel to football games most weekends partly or fully by train, I travel to see my girlfriend sometimes by train), and I seem to always be caught in delays / disruption. My friends and family have said how much bad luck I seem to get, but in reality it is simply what the rail network in this country (at least in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) land) is actually like. No luck (good or bad) in it at all.

The biggest issue with this is the splitting of the Bristol - Bath services between two ToC's.
At the moment with them being run by the same ToC, if disruption hits specific services then the other services often pick up the slack (e.g. if the stoppers have issues, the Cardiff - Pompey or sometimes even the high speed services stop off at Keynsham and Oldfield Park). I somehow doubt that would happen as often if it was another ToC!

The stopping locations have changed since the works around Easter time, whilst I can't remember exactly where it now is, I do remember the stopping location for platform 11 having changed a fair bit so that it is now basically around where the Pumpkin cafe is. (edit, I see RA has replied in the time I was typing this saying the same!).


You also have the problem of people jumping on these trains to get to Bath, when in an ideal world they'd be getting the Cardiff - Portsmouth services (well maybe not yet, but when they start to run as 5 car turbos), or even better the London bound high speed services.

In which case GWR may want to update their app because it is still saying that break of journey is not allowed for mobile tickets (that is of today, as I used a mobile ticket this morning and specifically checked for the wording). Is there anywhere where GWR have publicly confirmed this wording is incorrect?

If it wasn't the "she" there I'd have asked if it was me you saw!
But yes, at the moment they are only offered if the start or end of the journey is gated, and specifically bar break of journey (presumably so you can't just get off at a station that isn't gated).
Out of curiosity did the guard scan the QR^▸ (QR Code - Quick Response code) code on her screen or just look at it? I've had a bit of a mix regarding this. I suspect they are meant to scan the code, but its a bit faffy with them having to get the camera app up on their device etc.

This also affects Bath (as Bath is where the coaches through Chippenham used to go to and from). This happened a couple of years ago too when Megabus started running the services then dumped them after about a year. The services were reintroduced last year and until reading this post I wasn't aware they had stopped again. I suspect they see initial high usage (with the service being "new" and getting media publicity etc) and then it probably drops off pretty quickly (thanks to competition from National Express and the railway) to a point where they give up again.

Is that really the case?
Wasn't splitting at Temple Meads part of the original plan?
Did nobody check that was actually possible?

I guess the question is, has the move the IECC's and RoC's meant that disruption is spread around a larger area?
Is it acceptable that say a lightening strike on Didcot (to bring it more towards GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s area) would mess up the Severn Beach line?
I accept there are reasons why larger signalling centres work and make sense, but I also think the public have the right to then complain when railway industry controlled decisions (aka the move to larger centres that control larger areas) end up making non railway caused disruption worse.

In the example you mention at York, would the disruption at York caused disruption at Leeds like that if systems and signalers were more spread out?

2.5 hours Taunton to Cardiff.

The "fast" Bristol to Cardiff services (aka the ex Portsmouth services) are timetabled for 48 minutes at their fastest (tho still can do it faster due to padding in the timetable).
The slower services to Cardiff are generally given just over an hour (though some are just under).
The "fast" services between Taunton and Bristol are given 30 minutes (some are 31, but its close enough!).
The slower services are given just over an hour too.

All isn't as it seems though due to the connection at Bristol, so most journeys with the connection are given as somewhere between 1 hour 50 mins and 2 hours 8 minutes.
Given that that particular direct train seems like the slowest, and others are timetabled for between 2 hours 6 minutes and 2 hours 20 mins, depending on when you travel, taking the "slower" train may work out quicker!

Of course all that only applies if you are travelling west of Bristol towards South Wales and in that case you have the additional benefit of it being a through service, especially right now when changing to a new GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service at Bristol seems like it can be a bit like rolling a dice when it comes to will it be on time or even be running at all. If you are just travelling to Bristol then the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services are a no brainer at about half the journey time (unless you have literally just missed a fast one).

Isn't it more like largely due to the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)?
The DfT specified the level of service they expected from the bids without checking with Network Rail if it was possible. The DfT won't give Network Rail funding for the work that would need to be done to make that level of service possible.

I actually managed to get onto the page in time to get tickets, but then realised that I wasn't actually available for any of the times .

Indeed. There was an incident a few years ago at the station near my old secondary school where a child died after being hit in the head by a train that was stopping at the station. Just shows the speed doesn't have to be high for an incident to be fatal.

Sounds like most of the route will be taken up by either the new route of the U2 or First's new 20 service, so thankfully there shouldn't be many new shelters left unused.